Note 113 — JEUX D'ESPRIT AND MINOR POEMS, 1798-1824.
Reading edition
[John Cam Hobhouse (1786-1869) (see Letters, 1898, i. 163, note 1) was committed to Newgate in December, 1819, for certain passages in a pamphlet entitled, A Trifling Mistake in Thomas Lord Erskine's recent Preface, which were voted (December 10) a breach of privilege. He remained in prison till the dissolution on the king's death, February 20, 1820, when he stood and was returned for Westminster. Byron's Liberalism was intermittent, and he felt, or, as Hobhouse thought, pretended to feel, as a Whig and an aristocrat with regard to the free lances of the Radical party. The sole charge in this "filthy ballad," which annoyed Hobhouse, was that he had founded a Whig Club when he was an undergraduate at Cambridge. He assured Murray (see his letter, November, 1820, Letters, vol. iv. Appendix XI. pp. 498-500) that he was not the founder of the club, and that Byron himself was a member. "As for his Lordship's vulgar notions about the mob" he adds, "they are very fit for the Poet of the Morning Post, and for nobody else." There is no reason to suppose that Byron was in any way responsible for the version as sent to the Morning Post.]
"MY BOY HOBBY O. [Another Version.]
To the Editor of the Morning Post.
Sir,—A copy of verses, to the tune of 'My boy Tammy,' are repeated in literary circles, and said to be written by a Noble Lord of the highest poetical fame, upon his quondam friend and annotator. My memory does not enable me to repeat more than the first two verses quite accurately, but the humourous spirit of the Song may be gathered from these:—
1. Why were you put in Lob's pond, My boy, Hobby O? (bis) For telling folks to pull the House By the ears into the Lobby O! 2. Who are your grand Reformers now, My boy, Hobby O? (bis) There's me and Burdett,—gentlemen, And Blackguards Hunt and Cobby O! 3. Have you no other friends but these, My boy, Hobby O? (bis) Yes, Southwark's Knight,* the County Byng, And in the City, Bobby O!
* "Southwark's Knight" was General Sir Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849), who was returned for Southwark in 1818, and again in 1820; "County Byng" was George Byng, M.P. for Middlesex; and "Bobby" was Sir Robert Waithman (1764-1833), who represented the City of London in 1818, but lost his seat to Sir William Curtis in 1820. All these were advanced Liberals, and, as such, Parliamentary friends of Hobhouse.
4. "How do you recreate yourselves, My boy, Hobby O? (bis) We spout with tavern Radicals, And drink with them hob-nobby O! 5. "What purpose can such folly work, My boy, Hobby O? (bis) It gives our partisans a chance Watches to twitch from fob-by O! 6. "Have they no higher game in view, My boy, Hobby O? (bis) Oh yes; to stir the people up, And then to head the mob-by O. 7. "But sure they'll at their ruin pause, My boy, Hobby O? (bis) No! they'd see King and Parliament Both d—d without a sob-by O! 8. But, if they fail, they'll be hanged up, My boy, Hobby O? (bis) Why, then, they'll swing, like better men, And that will end the job-by O! Philo-Radicle." April 15, 1820."